In June 2011, a three-day trial ended when an Adair County jury found former local dentist Arnold Stephen Barber guilty of two counts of felony witness tampering in the Tom Oswald sex abuse case. The jury said Barber offered the parents of Oswald’s victim a bribe of $150,000 in order to not cooperate with the prosecution in the case.

Oswald later pleaded guilty and was sent to prison, where he died earlier this year.

Barber was sentenced to a pair of five-year prison terms, to be served concurrently, but appealed the case in the Western District Court of Missouri.

What happened

The lengthy appeal process came to a head in late October, when oral arguments were heard before appellate court judges in Linn County. Less than two weeks later, the judges returned a decision reversing the trial court’s verdict and ordering the case be returned to the circuit level for a new trial.

At the center of the decision was a mysterious omission from the original trial recording. Where Barber’s direct testimony should have been heard, instead there was silence and, in some places, country music.

The malfunction is as of yet unexplained.

What’s next

Before the case could head back to the circuit court level and placed back on the docket, the Missouri Attorney General’s office isn’t finished.

In early December, the state filed a pair of briefs with the Western District Court. One argues the court’s decision failed to properly measure the state’s case and requests the appeal be heard again.

A second brief asks that the case be handed off to the Missouri Supreme Court, arguing the appellate court failed to weigh all available facts in its decision.